This invention relates to electronic design automation and computer aided circuit design. More specifically this invention relates to the simplification of electronic circuit design such that a person without specific knowledge of circuit design could design and order a custom product and expect end-to-end integration of circuit design through manufacturing and delivery.
Electronic circuit boards provide the foundation of the electronics device industry: they essentially comprise “Printed Circuit Boards” or PCB (laminated layers of conductive material and an insulating substrate, where the conductive material forms traces or electrical signal pathways that connect components mounted on the outer surfaces) and electronic components such as resistors, integrated circuits, LED's, etc., which together form a functional circuit when provided with power connections and input and output couplings. Today, creating and building a custom circuit board requires the understanding of an electrical engineer with design expertise to select the components and arrange them conceptually before ordering the custom PCB and then orchestrating the supply of those components and contract manufacturers that assemble them. Although individual stages of this process may have been automated so engineers may be more effective and precise, to accomplish the entire process requires individuals skilled in several arts as well as an semi-automated supply chain for management of the part supply.
For example, an industrial designer may have an idea for a medical device that requires a microphone, a headset, pushbuttons, and artificial intelligence software for medical decision-making, inside a particularly shaped enclosure. With known state-of-current-art techniques, such a product design would require an electrical design engineer to develop an electrical schematic before passing the design to a board layout expert, and then submitting the design to a logistics or manufacturing group for entering data and ordering components.
Computers-On-Modules (COMs) have been developed that alleviate the burden of complex circuit design from original equipment manufacturers across numerous domains. A COM requires only externally applied power to become a functioning computer: wireless communication and software are encompassed within. Expansion boards provide a mechanism to provide power to the COM and can provide potential functionality to certain types of COMs. By designing an expansion board, an electrical engineer can add a selection of input and output connectors to suit custom design needs. Gumstix, Inc., the assignee of the present invention, manufactures and offers a selection of demonstrative expansion boards for sale, as well as documentation for designers to develop their own uses.
The concept of integrated end-to-end-design-to-delivery systems is not new. For example, within limits, consumers may customize motor vehicles by selecting options as a part of online ordering for manufacturing, and publications can be designed and delivered though on-line service offerings. An example of an integrated and versatile publication process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,717,686 to Farros et al. assigned to iPrint.com.
However, no fully integrated systems are known to exist to provide dedicated end-to-end-design-to-delivery. What is needed is a tool for use by an essentially untrained user allowing the quick design of electronic products that may include one or more computers-on-module, and that will order and thus ultimately manufacture and deliver the products to an intended customer.